The PlayLion Billionaire: A Paranormal Billionaire Romance

by Amor, Maria

  Olivia was seated a few feet away from him. She was still weak from the poisoning but Robert told himself that once the last threat to his leadership was eliminated, they would take a vacation—he would give her all the time she needed to recover completely. He would have to integrate her more fully into the Pride, but first he would need to make Olivia feel comfortable around him, truly comfortable, the way a mate should feel.

  It had taken three hours to convince Amelia to confess who had put her up to poisoning her coworker; at that, the woman hadn’t even known why Olivia was a target, only that her boss wanted Olivia eliminated. They had turned Amelia over to the police anonymously and she would be tried in the regular human courts for attempted murder. Robert knew that the woman would say nothing at all about having been part of a conspiracy; he and Katarina had made it abundantly clear the woman who had put Amelia up to the task was in no position to do her any favors.

  Robert smiled bleakly to himself. Katarina had been almost as angry as he had been when they had discovered the ultimate source of the poison, the person responsible for the betrayal. He shook his head, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, feeling the crackling magic in his bones. Not yet, he told his leonine nature.

  The culprit had been a member of the company but not any of the people that Katarina and Alexis had been investigating. Lucille Braun, a relatively minor employee at Lowe Freight, a manager in the accounting department. Why she had gone so far, why she had betrayed him, Robert didn’t know but it would come out in the trial, he was sure. When Amelia had finally confessed, Katarina and Alexis both had moved immediately. They had managed to get the woman’s email and text message records using the private investigator that Robert kept on retainer, and they had—with the same investigator, a werewolf named Brent—tracked the belladonna that had been used to poison Olivia to Lucy. It was an open-and-shut case, or at least Robert hoped that the Pride would view it that way.

  Katarina had taken Lucille into custody—keeping her under lock and key in the basement of the old home Katarina had inherited from her parents—and there Lucille had stayed in the days since the discovery. Robert had been forced to wait until Olivia was recovered enough from the poisoning attempt to meet the Pride, to be introduced to them as the Alpha’s mate. Robert smiled to himself, remembering the look of surprise on the faces of most of his followers. Everyone had known that the Alpha had found a mate, that the mate was a regular human instead of a were-lion, and most of them had known that it was Olivia but the speed with which Robert had wooed her surprised everyone.

  Robert scented the air; he stood taller, recognizing the pheromones of the elders, of his Pride. He glanced at Olivia, still seated, looking around her with something on her face that was not quite wariness. He felt a mixture of satisfaction, pride and regret, knowing that she had agreed to be his mate not because she really wanted to be—not because he had convinced her—but because she could see no other choice for both of them than to be his mate. You will have plenty of time to convince her that it’s the right choice, and not just for her survival. Get through tonight, get rid of Lucille, and you can spend every day of the rest of your life showing her that you are the right man for her.

  Robert took a deep breath. “They’re coming, Liv,” he said, keeping his voice gentle.

  Olivia stood, her feet briefly unsteady underneath her. Robert reached out to support her, his protective instincts tingling through him, competing with the low simmer of rage that he felt that someone, anyone, had tried to kill her. Olivia steadied herself, giving him a fleeting smile, appreciation in her eyes for the gesture. “I’m okay,” she said quietly. “I just want this to be over with.”

  As the Pride approached the clearing, Robert remembered his visit to Olivia’s hospital room. Once he knew Lucille was in Katarina’s custody, his first move had been to see his mate, to verify she was okay. She had been awake, laying in the hospital bed and sipping water when he arrived; Alexis had been at her side. As soon as Robert came in, Alexis stood, understanding the need in Robert’s body. For a long moment after Alexis had left, Olivia had sat in silence, not quite looking at him. He watched her labored swallow and reached out to take her hand in his.

  “I accept,” Olivia had said, her voice a hoarse rasp. Alexis had sent Robert a text message, one he had read on his way to the hospital, about the results of the poisoning. He had given Olivia’s hand a squeeze in sympathy. He knew her throat was probably killing her from having her stomach pumped.

  “You accept?” Robert had asked.

  Olivia had nodded. “You. I accept you.” She had taken a sip of water. “As your mate.”

  He gave Olivia’s hand a squeeze as the members of his Pride began to appear. Katarina had Lucille in tow, bound at the wrists and ankles, disheveled from her incarceration but bearing no major signs of abuse. Good. No one can say anyone overstepped. No one can accuse Katarina or me of doing this the wrong way. Robert’s keen night vision picked out the approaching figures of the elders. He looked at the gathering crowd, composing himself. Robert let go of Olivia’s hand, absorbing the silence that fell over the group.

  “We’re here because a member of the Pride has betrayed us all,” Robert said. “This individual was involved in the raids on our territory, carried out by renegade lions seeking to take over the leadership of the Pride. She was also responsible for poisoning my mate, and attempting to stage an overthrow of the Alpha of this Pride by devious means, instead of the accepted form of challenge.” Robert let his words hang on the air, watched as the Pride absorbed them. Lucille’s friends in the Pride—the people closest to her—looked away, their body language betraying their shame and disgust. One of the elders stepped forward.

  “Because of the contentious and serious nature of these charges,” the orange-haired woman said, looking out over the assembled Pride, “we elders have ruled that Lucille can only be executed if a trial of her peers determines she is guilty and that execution is the correct measure.” The elder looked at Robert. “Everyone must vote, including the newest member of the Pride, Olivia Price.” The elder stepped back into the crowd of were-lions, taking up her position.

  “Bring the accused forward,” Robert told Katarina. Lucille’s shifting eyes took in the Pride, as well as staring daggers at both Robert and Olivia. Katarina shoved Lucille into the center of the clearing, taking her position off to the side, facing the assembled Pride. Robert gestured for Olivia to take up her proper spot with the rest of the group, giving her an encouraging nod. “Alexis will present the evidence against Lucille, and then Lucille will have the opportunity to say her piece before the Pride votes.”

  Alexis stepped forward, holding the material that she and Katarina had collected. Robert looked around at the faces of his Pride as Alexis explained what they had discovered: the text messages between Lucille and Peter, the contents of her emails, the receipts that showed that she had purchased the belladonna. Katarina testified to the Pride about the interrogation of the non-lion employee—Amelia—that Lucille had suborned. The fact that Amelia was not even a were-lion, or a shape-shifter of any kind—that she was a complete outsider—sent a murmur of alarm and dismay through the crowd and Robert saw the fear mounting in Lucille’s eyes.

  Finally, it came time for Lucille to make her statement, to address the Pride. “Okay,” Lucille said, standing up awkwardly with her wrists and ankles still bound. “I appeal to you all, as a member of your family, to understand why I did this.” Robert glanced furtively at his followers. He was relieved that none of them, even Lucille’s friends in the Pride, seemed sympathetic. “I feel that Robert Lowe is a terrible Alpha. He refused to settle down and find a mate, and he was leading us into unstable territory—that’s why I backed Peter. Peter had plans for us! He was going to keep us whole, keep us steady.”

  “Then why did he bring in renegades?” one of the members of the Pride called out.

  “Because he had no other choice!” Lucille was becoming agitated. “Rober
t had evicted him from the Pride, he couldn’t work with his family…he couldn’t work with anyone in the Pride but me!” She trembled, pulling and tugging ineffectually at her bindings. “Robert should have found a mate as soon as he assumed leadership of the Pride. He should have chosen one of our kind, and he should already have a cub on the way. Instead, he put it off and put it off, and now he’s not even mated to another lion!”

  “We have accepted Olivia into the Pride,” one of the male elders said. “She is one of us now.”

  “But she’s never going to be a lion!” Lucille countered. “You don’t even know if she can handle it. Besides…” tears began to stream down Lucille’s face. “Robert should have picked me. Peter—Peter was going to—Peter was going to be my mate, but when he was kicked out of the Pride…” Lucille shivered, curling in on herself slightly. “When he was kicked out of the Pride, Robert had a responsibility to see that I was fairly mated. And he did nothing!” A murmur of disgust rippled through the group. “I don’t deserve to die—Robert deserves to be kicked out, for what he did to Peter, what he did to me. He’s the worst Alpha we’ve ever had!” Lucille stared at him, her face contorting in rage. “If I could have killed him I would have!” She twisted and lunged, falling to the ground and continuing to profess that it was Robert who should be killed and not her.

  Katarina came forward, pulling the accused to the sidelines. The elders called for the vote, and Robert—the accuser—had to stand aside, and wait while the Pride deliberated. He knew without a doubt what Olivia’s verdict would be, along with Katarina and Alexis, as well as his mother. He couldn’t know for sure whether Lucille’s friends in the Pride would come to her rescue.

  “We have a decision,” the orange-haired elder female announced. “Lucille Braun will be put to death at sunrise by the Alpha. It will be witnessed by the Pride.”

  *

  Olivia stretched, feeling the slippery whispering silk of sheets against her bare skin as she woke up gradually, feeling rested for the first time in what seemed like weeks. She wasn’t sure what time of day it was—or even if it was day—but the bone-deep satisfaction she felt was reassuring. She smiled to herself, turning slightly in the bed.

  It had been a week since the trial. The evening before, she and Robert had arrived in the islands, thousands of miles away from everything to do with his life as the Alpha of his Pride. Though Olivia had not quite managed to reconcile the execution she had seen with her greater moral compass, she was at least glad that it was over, that she would never again have to worry about someone coming after her. And slowly but surely, she had come to the conclusion that her choice—forced as it had been—had been the right one.

  The day after the trial, hours after the execution, Olivia and Robert had reported to the Human Resources department of Lowe Freight, to report their relationship. She had put in her notice the same day. She would no longer be working for the company—and in fact, with a billionaire as her de facto husband, there was no need for her to work—but she would continue to help Robert with public outreach.

  “I know you’re awake.” Robert’s low, almost purring voice filled her ears and Olivia opened her eyes, smiling.

  “Answer me something,” Olivia said, turning onto her side to face him in the bed they shared.

  “Anything,” Robert replied, reaching out and pulling her body close to his underneath the sheets.

  “My entire life has done a 180 in the past…month, let’s say. I don’t know the exact number of weeks. Why do I feel so good about everything?”

  Robert chuckled, brushing his lips against her temple. “Sure sign that you’ve made the right choice,” he told her, his hands beginning to wander over her body. Olivia shivered, arching into his caresses, looking up into his eyes as Robert watched her intently. “You slept well last night,” Robert observed.

  Olivia’s smile deepened. “No nightmares.” One of Robert’s hands slid down between her legs, brushing along her inner thighs, and Olivia felt her body heating up quickly. No matter how many times they had sex—and the night before, she thought wryly, they had certainly gone for a personal best—the reaction from her body never diminished. It was as if, in some way, Robert instinctively knew exactly how to touch her. “How long are we going to be here?” she asked. Robert had sprung the trip on her abruptly, giving her his credit card and telling her to buy whatever she wanted or needed for the vacation.

  “As long as it takes,” Robert told her, his hand sliding up along her inner thigh slowly. His fingers brushed against her already-slick folds in a feather-light touch that made Olivia tremble, crackles of pleasure already beginning to dance along her nerve endings.

  “As long as it takes for what?” Olivia asked, her breath hitching in her throat as Robert’s fingers pressed against her. He rubbed up and down along her labia, stroking her lightly, and Olivia felt herself becoming wetter and wetter. Robert kissed her hungrily, turning her around, tumbling her between the sheets until she was underneath him. Olivia could feel the heat and hardness of his cock pressing against her, digging into her thigh as Robert stroked her inner labia, teasing her with a touch that barely avoided her clit.

  “As long as it takes…for you to be fully relaxed,” Robert told her. He rocked his hips against hers, rubbing his hard cock along her thigh even as he brought his fingertips just beneath her pleasure center, rubbing her firmly. Olivia chuckled breathlessly, her breaths coming in sharp, panting gasps as Robert kissed and nipped along the column of her throat, working his way down to her breasts. She loved the rough, not-quite-sandpaper feeling of his tongue against her skin, the way he lapped at her pulse point, the flickering of his fingers against her pussy. Hot and cold jolts of pleasure crackled through her nerves, lighting up her veins, as she began to move underneath him, hungry for more.

  “Am I ever going to see the outside of this room?” she asked him playfully. Robert made a sound between a growl and a purr, nipping sharply just above her nipple, and Olivia gasped.

  “Mm,” Robert murmured, his gaze flicking up to her face as he claimed her nipple between his lips. He sucked and licked the firm little nub, his fingers finding her clit while he worshiped her breast with his mouth, swirling and rubbing against her pleasure center. Olivia squirmed and writhed underneath him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his waist. She let her hands trail all over his lean body, exploring the lines and ridges she already knew so well. She could hear the wet sounds of Robert’s fingers working on her over the sounds of her own gasps and moans, over the slurping noise of Robert moving from one nipple to the other to lavish even more attention onto her body.

  He teased her relentlessly for what felt like hours—though in the back of her mind, Olivia knew that it couldn’t have been that long—stroking her, rubbing her clit and then bringing his fingers away, pressing the pads of his fingers against her inner labia and then working them back up to her pleasure center once more. Robert pulled back from her breasts, bringing his lips up to her mouth, kissing her eagerly as she writhed underneath him, her hips pushing down to get better contact between his fingers and her pussy.

  “You’ll leave the room,” Robert murmured lowly, his voice almost a growl, possessive and caressing. “But you have to admit this bed is very, very nice.” Olivia nodded, too turned on to speak, as pleasure mounted in her, driving out even the ability to think. She could only react as sensation crackled along her nerve endings, bringing her closer and closer to orgasm. Robert slid two fingers inside of her, pushing past the resistance of her body as her inner muscles flexed convulsively. Olivia moaned out, twisting her hips, as Robert worked her pleasure center with his thumb, his fingers sinking deeper and deeper inside of her, wriggling and rubbing along her inner walls.

  The first wave of pleasure crashed through her and Olivia cried out, clinging to Robert’s body as if for life itself as spasms of sensation danced through her body. Robert’s fingers worked inside and outside of her, stroking and rubbing, as he
r orgasm intensified, her muscles flexing in erratic convulsions. Olivia moved instinctively, her hips shifting underneath Robert. She pulled his face around, up to her lips, and kissed him hungrily, arching and twisting as more and more pleasure flooded through her.

  Robert never slowed, never showed a single sign of stopping until the spasms began to abate. Olivia shuddered underneath him, squirming with the aftershocks of pleasure, smiling without being entirely certain why, only knowing that she felt as good as she had ever felt in her life. Robert’s fingers withdrew and Olivia was almost disappointed until she remembered the throbbing, hard cock pressed against her. It wouldn’t be long until round two, she thought breathlessly. She opened her eyes, unaware of when she had closed them, and grinned up at Robert.

  “You win,” she said, licking her lips. Robert chuckled, continuing to rock his hips against her, rubbing his cock against her thigh slowly and steadily.

  “I told you before,” Robert said, kissing her lightly on the lips as she recovered, her body already heating up with renewed desire. “You’re my mate, my first goal in life is to keep you happy, and keep you satisfied.”

  “What about when I have kids?” Olivia asked. The question had ceased to startle her, she had never really thought about kids as a serious part of her future but she knew that as Robert’s mate, she would have to bear at least one child, a guarantee of the future of the Pride.

  “When you have kids, my first goal will be to keep you happy and satisfied, and my next goal will be to make sure they’re raised properly.” Robert shifted against her, and Olivia moaned softly as she felt his cock press against her slick folds. He rubbed along her labia, rocking his hips slowly, teasing them both. Olivia gasped as the tip of Robert’s cock brushed against her already-sensitive clit, sending a jolt through her that was somewhere between overstimulation and pleasure.